Method and apparatus for heating long blanks



W. B. PEIRCE v METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HEATING LONG BLANKS March 3l'. T925.

original Filed nay 2e, 1922 z sheets-sheet 1 March 31,1925. 1,531,497

' w. B. PEIRCE v I METHOD AND APPARATUS FQR 'HEATING LONG BLANKS original und lay 26, 1922 2 sheets-sheet 2 I' E Y .236?

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yi L?! a 4 y Patented. Mar. A3l 19.25.

UNITEDl STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM B. PIERCE, OF CORAOPO'LIS, PENNSYLVANIA.,

METHOD AND APPARATUS Foa HEATING LONG BLANES.

Application filed May 26, 1922, Serial No. 583,748`. Renewed February 5, '1925.

l Blanks, of whicli'the vfollowing is a Speer tication.

My present invention relates more particularly to heating metal blanks, usually iron in rod form commonly obtainable in the market in bundle coils which are the product lof rod rolling mills. The specifc purpose in view is heating these rods to forging temperatures for continuousfeed to automatic spike, screw, bolt or nut machines, but itrwill` be obvious that the i-nvention and various features thereof may be employed for other purposes.

One of the specific objects is to heat the material by a continuous process whereby it is possible to continuously feed the maerial into, through and out of a heating .'urnace Without cutting 'the material into separate pieces or lengths. Preferably the blanks are as long as obtainable and where the above-described bundle coils are used successive coils may-be electrically Welded end to end to `maintain aA continuous unbroken length of material continuously progressing through the furnace and to the forging machine.

Important featu'res of my present method include back-and-forth bending of the material to form suitably spaced lengths ex- -tending transversely of the direction of feed, preferably approximately parallelA with each -other and in substantially the same plane. Thus the materiahis compactly disposed, as it were, in a single horizontal layer, the heighth of which need be no greater than the thickness of the rod. Hence the furnace need be no higher than is desired to insure uniform distribution of the heat and prevent too direct impingement of the heating medium upon' the blank.

Thenumber and length of the straight portions thus Vconnected by reverse bends is suflicient to 'ord Supply material to the forging .mac line for a substantial pe-l riod 'of time. Consequently, there is a wide margin fordiference of rate at which the bent material is supplied and the rate at which it is consumed by the forging maare laid.

chine and it is therefore possible stop the bending machine and its supply coil long enough to put a new coil on the mandrel and weld its front end to the tail end of the coil which has been exhausted.

From the above it Will be evident that one broad purpose ofthe reverse bending method is to .-maintain a large amount of slack material in -orderly non-twist formation between the forging machine and the source of supply, so that one of the elements, either the forging machine, or the supply mechanism, lor a portion of the slack material between them, can be slowed up or stopped for a short period, without interferring with the operation of the other element or elements.

By this method the rod may be bent in transversely extending lengths, passed through the furnace forvheating and then drawn off, straightened and forged, wit-hout putting in or taking out any longituvof very heavy rods, say one inch square,

for forging heavy spikes.

The shaping of the rod or bar material in the required succession of reversely directed U- bends may be done by hand or by automatic mechanism, in any desired way, as for instance, by bending the material about forming or mandrel projections arranged on a periphery of a rotor.

These may be sprocket-like projections spaced apart lengthwise of the rotor so that the straight portions of the rod between the bends lie parallel with each other and with' the axis of the rotor. If desired, automatic reciprocating means may be employed for laying and bending the material upon the rotary mandrel, Athe latter being rotated step by step as the lengths Preferably stationary inclined surfaces or cams are arranged to automatically stripthe bent material from the rotor 'and guide it to the furnace.

The material emerging from the furnace, bing softened by the heat, is easily straightened by traction in the feeding mechanism y .chine may be utilized for effecting the feed.

of the forging machine. v

. InA the furnace the material preferably slides on track-like surfaces preferably water-cooled pipes extending lengthwise of thev bed ofl the furnace.

It will beobvious that the. push-feed ap plied between the forming mechanism and the furnace, and the traction feed applied between the furnace and the forging Amaof the material through the furnace and the bed of theI furnace may be suitably inclined downward from entrance to exit to utilize gravityto assist the feed. Preferably, however, some auxiliary regularizing'means is employed within the furnace. lThis `could take the form of sprocket conveyers enaging the reversely bent lengths of the lank but as shownherein the'means em,- ployed includes a system of ratcheting mechanism, comprising reciprocating bars' provided with dogs which extend upVV into the furnace and are pivoted and weighted f ao ` in which- Fig. 1 is a top `plan view' indicating more or less'diagrammatically apparatus which soytha't on the r'earward movement' they trip and pass under-the blank. material but on theforward movement project, engage and feed the same.

The. above and other features ofY my invention may be more fully understood from 4the following detailed description 4in connection with the accompanying drawings,

. may be used' for practice of themethod.

- Fig,`2 is'a side elevation partly in section Fig. 3 is an elevation lookin in the direc# tion ofthe arrows and on t e line 3-3,

' furnace.-

Fig. 5 isa detail in vertical longitudinal section showin 'more clearly the construction of Athe ceding means indicated in Fig.\2. n l While practice of theprimary essentials yof the method require only the rod material,

aman or. means for reversely bending it and a heater through which the bent material is fed, I refer to employ a furnace A, a bending -orm B, and feeding mechanism C, all in o erative relation to any desired automatic orging machine, diagrammatically indicated at D..

The furnace A maybe of the Ordinar fire brick construction, supplied witi fiaming gases at very high temperature from any desired source, preferably a regenerating furnace such asis commonly employed for such purposes. The heighth ofv the furnace yand the supply of the heating medium is preferably such that whatever deformation during the heating and feeding. The length of the furnace will operations. depend-on how fast the material has to be supplied to the forging machine and how oongit has to be exposed inthe furnace to rin forging temperature; also on how large a radius the bends'r'nust have in order not to deforln the material too much for restraightening when heated. Heavy material requires larger radius bends, taking up more -space lengthwise of the furnace. For most purposes the furnace need not be more than eight or ten' feet long, on a width of six to eight feet, as whereonc inch rod material is to be'heated.

In Figs. 2 and 5, the bed ofthe furnace 1 has water-cooled pipes 2 `on the surface thereof'ex'tending lengthwise of the furnace -and aifording-pslideways for supportingthe rodv material, preferabl by engaging the spaced lengths 3 thereo and referably at points well away from ends wiiere they are connected through the reverse bends 4, 5.

` its entire cross section `to uniform- These pipes preferably diverge slightly so that their points of sliding contact with the material will shift as the latter moves forward, thereby permitting uniform heating without formation of cold parts. More than two slideway pipes vmayy be employed if desired.

Extendin llengthwise of the furnace bed -1 are slot-li e'recesses 6 in which are bars 7 slidable endwise in suitable supports 8,-9. These carry a series of dogs, each preferably a single casting comprising feed finger l1,

counterbalance 12, and a hook-like bearing 13, rotatably engaging a fixed stud 14 on 7 bar A7. When fbar 7 moves in the direction indicated'by the arrow, Fig. 5, the dogs lcontact with stops l5 on bar 7 and force forward'feed movement of the rod material lengths 3. O11 the reverse movement each dog vautomatically trips and slides under the material, after passing which, the

counter-weight 12 restores itto the vertical position shown in Fig. 5. The bars I are reciprocated through links 17 by eccentric crank pins 18 on shaft 19 driven by sprocket chain or belt 20. A V

l-At the entrance'and exit ends are. doors 24:, 25, which may be similar. These doors are each vertically slidable, their-operation being facilitated' by counterweight's '25',

. operating through cord and chain 26, passing over pulley 27 and secured to the upper edge of the door, as at 28.

In normal operationof the device these doors are maintained in the'lowermost position and in order to permit the material to enter andvjleave the furnace, the lower portion of' .thedoor is preferably formed as a series of independent flaps 30 hinged or pivoted as at 31, so that they will automatically open and close when and tothe extent that each is engaged by the-rod material fed therethrough. These flapdoors or other equivalent means* are desirable as affording 4a moderate drag the material to prevent more-than one length at a time being draggeor'orced'out of the furnace and thereby -fbecoming undesirably cooled before reaching the forging machine.

The 'forming -means B includes a rotor which, in this case, takes the form of heavy wheel-like members 35, 36, fixed on shaft 37 which is rotatably mounted in bearings 3 8. has a series of stud projections with rollers 39, 39, projecting radially somewhat like the teeth on sprocket wheels. 36, has an equal number of similar projections 40, blut they are located opposite points midwaybetween the corresponding projections 39, 39, on the other wheel 35. The size of the stud rollers is preferably determined by the. radius of curvature required for the bends of the, rod, saidrollers bein 4 preferably utilized as mandrels around w ich the rod In ractice the diameter 'of the mandrel shou d be. about three times the diameter of the rod in order that the bend may not be too sharp.' The spacing of the ,g rollers is preferably such that the straight roller lengths of the rod between themas aty 3 are parallel. 4 This, of course, requires that the axes of the rollers be distant from eachother a distance equal .to' two .diameters of the vlus two diameters of the rod material. bviously, however, exact parallelism of successive rod lengths is'notznecessary. Sharp bending -is undesirable except in sofar as it permits more rod lengths pernnit length of furnace.

The rod materialmay be laid on and bent or with the assistance of hammers,`dies or forming tools. For the pur Oseof illustration I show atransversely sliding` element adapted to apply and shape the rod material automatically. It consists. of support 50 reciprocated on bed 51 by link 52 drlven from any suitable source of power. Support 50 carries a standard 53 having a rear opening 54 for vpassage of rod material drawn from the idle drum or reel. 55 rotatably mounted on vertical stud 56 on standard i 57. The rodmaterial is threaded through said opening 54,'whence it passes through a guide opening 58 in a projection 59, the

'above path of reciprocation of whichris within the circle of rotation of the outer ends of the mandrel projections 39, 40. The throw of slide 50 is such as to bring 58, 59, endwise beyond 35 and 36 at each end of its travel.

Whentheguide element 59 is thus beyond the end'of the formingrotor the' latter is rotated onestep so that the. return movement carries the rod material below the i mandrel projection already engaged and the next co-operating roller at the other end.'4 y

' This step by step movement with proper timingv is caused by a double acting cam projection 60 on slide 61 which has a lost motion engagement with slide 50 through the medium o f slot 62gandilug 63, as shown in Fig. 3. The slot 62-isenough longer than 'lug 63 to vpermit cam 60 lagging-behind slide 50 untilthe latter can pass the mandrel rollers in both directions of travel. In

the position shown 4in Fig. 3, the lug 63 has engaged the end of slot 62 -and further I movement in the direction of the arrow will move .cam 60 into engagement with mandrel roller .40, therebyrotating 36 through an an le measured y an this distance is such that the return movement ,of slide 50 will carry the rod material belowv the roller, the u per side of the height of the cam' l which isalready engagedby t e rod material.

Qn the return stroke, the cam 60 will lagbehind in the opposite direction until lug 63 is in the other end of the slot and in position to give Ianother step feed Aby operation on a stud roller offwheel 35.

It .will be noted that'in the form shown there should be very considerable friction of .the rod material where it passeslhrough guide hole 58, in order to j properly straighten, tense and set the rodmaterialin the zig-zag form on the mandrel rollers. Obviouslyy the partsv .will be designed to meV afford the dra required for this purpose l and auxiliary ormmg orv` bending o r gu1dingmechanism or. rollers ma' be employed in lthis connection'.l Prefera ly stationary guides 66, 67, are arrangedv above the4 tops of the rollers 39, '40, to prevent' accidental displacementof the bent rod material.

Stationary inclined. guides are arranged to strip the formed' rod. from the rotary mandrel and uide it to the furnace. No attempt is ma e to show.theconstruction'or means for positively operating the drawing out rolls dlagrammatically indicated at E, nor the forging'mechanism lat D. It will be understood that' the distances between the supply reel 55 and the forming mandrel B, as also the distance between the exit and the furnace and the drawing rolls may-be conj siderablyincreased to glve' easier angles of draught, and lthat proportions, sizes and' parts` may be otherwise varied; as found necessary or desirable.

'so of rod material without imparting twist I claim: i

1.- The method of heating long blanks inl nected at the ends and lying approximately i in the same plane; passingpthe thus bent material in a direction transverse to saidl lengths,- into and through a suitable furnace to soften the same; and, while thus softened, straightening the bends. v

2. The method speclfied by claim 1, with the further feature of withdrawing the material at the exit end of the furnace and passing it to a forging machine by Iand in accordance with the draft of the feed mechanism of said machine.

3. The method of forming long blanks lfor heating which consists in winding rod material back and forthsuccessively around suitably spaced and sized mandrel projections, and stripping-the bent material therefrom; then feeding the thus bent material transversely of 'the lengthsothereof into operative relation to mea-ns ,for heating the same While thus bent and disposed in transverse lengths; then straightening the -material wlnle hot. l

4.`The method of forming metal articles thereto, which method consists in unrolling the material from therod, coil withoutl imparting twist, bending i-t in parallel lengths, serially connected at the ends by reverse U- bends lying approximatelyin the same plane, passing the thus bent material in a. direction transverse to said lengths, into and through a suitable furnace to soften the same; and, while thus softened, s'traightv ening the bends. v t 5. Apparatus for heating and forging rod I material supplied in bundle coil form, comprising a rotatable reel from which the rod material is unrollcd from .the coil without twisting it; a rotatable mand-rel having rod enga ing and bending projections; a transversely reciprocated rod laying and bending element in operative relation between the reel and the mandrel; means for rotatinnr the mandrel step by step after each lengt 1. of rod has been laid thereon means for stripping the bent-.rod material from they mandrel and guiding it to a heater and for feedingthe thus bent material therethrough.

6. The apparatusspecified by claim 5, and wherein the feeding means comprises dogs adapted to engage `transverse lengths of the material and means for moving said dogs.

7. The apparatus specified .by claim ,5, in combination with drawing rolls and a forging machine at the exit end of said furnace.

8. A furnace for heatingy rod or bar material supplied to the furnace in continuousl reversely bent lengths lying in substantially thel same plane and Vtraction means for drawing said material from the exit end of `the furnace by enolwise draft thereon; said furnace having sectional end doors at the exit, extending across the width `of the furnace whereb adrag isapplied to said material and w iereby only those door sections engaged by the material open and the others remain closed.

9. The method of preparing lengths` of rod or bar material for supply to a draft mechanism which method consists in bend'- ing the material reversely at intervals without twisting it to form lengths serially connected at the endsand lying approximately in the same plane, and lheating the suc-ces- .sive lengths of the thus lbent material thus maintaining-inadvance of said mechanism a supply of slack material 1n orderly forma- .tion and thereby rendering independent, within limits, the rate of supply of the material with respect to the rate of consump` tion by said mechanism.

' 10. The method of prepa-ring lengths of rod or bar material for supply to a draft mechanism which method consists in bending the materia-l reversely at intervals without twisting` it to form lengths serially connected at the ends and lying approximately in the same plane, and heating the successive lengths of the thus bent material thus maintaining in advance of said mechanism a supply of slack material in orderly formation and thereby rendering independent, within limits, the rate of supply of the material'with respectI to the rate of con-.

sumption by said mechanism; and holding stationary the successive rear ends of the bent rod or bar material while welding;

thereto an additional length of material.

11. The method of preparing lengths of rod or bar material for supply to a draft' mechanism which method consists in bend- 'ing the material laterally to provide in advance of 'the mechanism-a suppl-y ofslaek material in orderly non-twist formation;`

heating the thus bent material and then straightening it whilehot.

l2. The method of preparing lengths of rod'or bar material for supply to a draft mechanism which method 'consists in bend- 'ing the material laterally to provide in adlUU vance of the mechanism a supply of slack material in orderly non-twist formation; heating the thus bent material and thenstraightening it while hot; and holding st-ationary the successife rear ends of the bent rod or bar material While welding thereto an additional length of materiah 13. The method of preparing long blank material to maintain a slack supply to be removed at a desired rate, which 'method consists in bending the blank reversely, at intervals, to form transverse lengths, serially connected at the ends; heating the thus bent material and then straightening it while hot.

14. The method of maintaining a continuous supply `of rod or bar material for the feed Vmechanism of. an automatic forging machine, which method consists in supplying said material in separate lengths,. each suicient to supply the machine for a period greatel` than required to end-Weld successive lengths; transversely bending each length being drawn upon by the feed mechanism, and heating the thus bent material; to establish a slack supply of such heated material free to be drawn into said 'feed mechanism at the predetermined rateof consumption in the automatic forging machine, by merely straightening the bent poi`- tions; holding stationary the rear end of each length and end-Welding thereto a sueceeding length, While said slack supply is being thus drawn upon by straightening its bent portions. y

Signed at North Tonawanda in the county of Niagara, :and State of New York this 24th ,day of May, A. D. 1922.

WILLIAM B. ramon. 

